MHI Solutions Improving Supply Chain Performance
Powered by CICMHE: Creating Synergies Between MHI and Academia
THE 17TH INTERNATIONAL Material Handling Research Colloquium (IMHRC) was held in Trondheim, Norway, from June 24‑27, 2025. Since 1990, MHI and the College Industry Council on Material Handling Education (CICMHE) have proudly hosted IMHRC every two years, alternating between locations in the U.S. and Europe. When it comes to showcasing cutting-edge research on material handling, supply chain and logistics, IMHRC is the event to attend!
Professor Fabio Sgarbossa, leader of the Production Management Research Group & Logistics 4.0 Lab at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), chaired the 2025 IMHRC Scientific Committee, which also included Professor David Porter (Oregon State University—co‑chair), Professor Manjunath Kamath (Oklahoma State University—current CICMHE president), Professor Shanthi Muthuswamy (Northern Illinois University), Professor Jennifer Pazour (Rennselaer Polytechnic Institute) and JoAnna Leon (MHI—CICMHE managing director).
Over 40 submissions were received in late January 2025 in response to the call for extended abstracts. After a thorough review process, 35 extended abstracts were accepted for presentation at IMHRC from researchers in academia and industry located in 14 different countries in Asia (China, India, Israel and Taiwan), Europe (Austria, England, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Slovenia and Turkey) and North America (Canada, Puerto Rico and the U.S.).
The four‑day IMHRC included keynote speakers, research poster presentations, breakout sessions, industry tours and social networking events. The academic program kicked off on June 25 with Michael Mikitka, executive vice president of MHI’s Knowledge Center and WERC division, delivering the event’s opening keynote titled “Research‑Driven Insights for the Academic Community.” In his presentation, Mikitka shared key insights and trends from MHI’s Annual Industry Report, discussed potential topics for academic research and their implications for classroom instruction and proposed potential collaboration mechanisms between academia and industry through different MHI groups (CICMHE and MHEFI) and activities (Student Day and MHI’s Inspire Fund).
The second keynote was given by Lars Eilertsen, Business Development Manager at Solwr, a Norwegian company that specializes in solving logistics challenges for the trade industry. Eilertsen highlighted the value proposition, capabilities, safety, implementation and future development of two of Solwr’s robotic platforms: Grab™ and Sort™.
Participants had the opportunity to see Sort™ in action during their visit to ASKO Midt‑Norge AS’s distribution center. ASKO is Norway’s largest grocery wholesaler and a part of NorgesGruppen. During this visit, participants had the opportunity to learn more about ASKO’s operations and see some of their innovations in material handling, in particular the frozen‑storage area and the hydrogen production facilities for their fuel‑cell powered forklift fleet.
The final keynote was delivered by Rossano Luhulima, Sales Director for wheel.me, who highlighted the advantages of the company’s autonomous wheel platform, Genius 2. Participants had the opportunity to see Genius 2 in action during the keynote and while visiting NTNU’s Logistics 4.0 Lab. The Logistics 4.0 Lab is Norway’s first logistics laboratory that merges digital technologies with traditional production and logistics systems, enabling researchers, practitioners, engineers, pioneers, students and other enthusiasts to come together and collaborate on common ground.
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